Grammar Star

Some wrongly used words at a glance Our topic for this week has been drawn from words we use almost everyday. Ironically, as simple as these words may seem, some people often use them wrongly either in their daily conversation or writing. Sometimes the user may actually have the correct meaning of such words in mind, but will either use a wrong one or spell it in a way that gives it an entirely different meaning. Let's consider the following word pairs: 1. Fatal and Ghastly : Most people think that when there is a road crash leading to severe injuries and destruction of vehicles, it is fatal! The word 'fatal' is a derivative from the noun 'fate' which means 'destiny', 'an inevitable outcome', etc. Thus, an accident is described as 'fatal' when it resulted in death (or fatality). In other words, when an accident is very shocking or horrible and results in severe injuries and destruction without any death, it is not 'fatal'; it is '

In our discussion today, we shall examine the problems associated with some expressions connected to money or financial transactions.  Between hired purchase and hire purchase The fact that many verbal adjectives come in past tense makes a lot of people to overgeneralise. The question could be: if we have registered voter and hardened criminal, why won’t we have hired purchase? Unfortunately, the analogy does not stand. The correct expression is ‘hire purchase’ – defined as ‘a system by which one pays for a thing in regular installments while having the use of it’. I bought the car on hired purchase. (Wrong) I bought the car on hire purchase. (Correct) Instalmentally ? Another widely used foul expression is ‘paying instalmentally’. It is true that ‘a sum of money due as one of several equal payments for something, spread over an agreed time’, is called an instalment.  But English language frowns on turning the word into an adverb here. So, while you may have He bought it impulsively, i

Have you heard about silent letters before? Did you know that some letters that make up some words in English Language do not sound out when those words are pronounced? Some of those letters occur at the beginning, middle or ending of words. We are going to examine some of those words with such letters in this post. 1. Silent letters at the beginning of words: e.g. honour, honesty, hour, heir, etc. The letter 'h' in those words are silent and as such are not pronounced. Thus, one will hear 'onor', 'onesty', 'our' and 'air' whenever those words are pronounced. 2. Silent letters at the beginning and middle of words: eg. wrestle, whistle, castle, hustle, listen, debt, often, receipt, etc. The silent letters in these words are letters 'w', 'h', 'b', 'p' and 't'. Thus, in pronunciation we hear 'resl', wisl', 'casl', 'det', 'receet' and 'hosl'. 3. Silent letters at the

A lot of people, especially social media users, don't know the difference between these two verbs and the appropriate situations to use each. Note that both words are formed from the verb 'be'.  'Been' is used with the auxiliary 'has', 'have' or 'had' to form a perfect tense either in the present or past.  For example; ●The thief has been arrested. ●The thieves have been arrested. ●The thief/thieves had been arrested. On the other hand, 'Being' is used with the auxiliary 'is', 'was', 'are' or 'were' to form a continuous tense in the present or past. For example; ●The suspect is/was being interrogated at the police station. ●The suspects are/were being interrogated at the police station. Consider the following: ●It's been raining all day. ●It's being done that way in that village. The two examples above can be written the following ways: ●It has been raining all day. ●It is being done that way in

A common error notable among English language users in Nigeria is adding the plural marker "s" to nouns where it is not needed. This is certainly a consequence of the inability of many Nigerian speakers and writers of the English language to keep up with the quirky, illogical irregularities that are so annoyingly typical of the conventions of English grammar. It is common knowledge that the plural form of most nouns in English is created by adding the letter “s” to the end of nouns. But sometimes it requires adding “es” to nouns that end in “ch,” “x,” “s” or s-like sounds, such as “inches,” “axes,” “lashes,” etc. There are also, of course, irregular forms like “children” as the plural of “child,” “oxen as the plural of “ox,” etc. We have uncountable—or, if you will, “non-count”— nouns, which cannot be modified or combined with the indefinite articles “a” or “an.” This is precisely where Nigerians fall foul of standard usage norms. Most educated Nigerians generally know that n